File Complaint

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This page was created to help if you are experiencing disturbed living conditions and/or noise & health problems since the start up of wind turbines near your home. It is some sound information on what to do and who to talk to:

It is important to start a daily diary. We cannot emphasize this enough. While it may sound like a tedious chore, it will keep track of everything on a daily basis and is extremely helpful at recalling certain events or noticing a pattern to your observations. It can be crude notes, but the more detail the better. Make note of the weather, the time of day, the wind speed (low, moderate etc.) the atmosphere (foggy, snowing, sunny etc.) the blade direction. Note any physical responses, or any health issues. Any changes in behavior of your children, pets, livestock. All of these are very important, as well as recording the disturbances in the home (noise, vibration etc.)

When you are ready to lodge a complaint: Start by drafting a letter or email, clearly outlining the issues you are having and once completed, have the following phrase: “Please register this as a formal complaint” at the top of the letter. Simply state your experience as it is and you do not need to use anyone else’s observations to support yours, besides those who reside in your home. It must be your own personal experience. If you have multiple people in your household with complaints, detail them for each person.The complaint should be sent to:

If you are having health problems related to the turbines, you should report it to the Public Health Unit in your community. Send copies of your correspondence to all involved. Also add that you would like a reply from each of them that they have received your letter.

Keep a copy of all of your correspondence and if you should have any face to face meetings or phone calls, make sure you write down the pertinent points in your journal so you don’t forget what was said.

If you are having severe problems that need immediate attention call the Environmental Spills Reporting phone number 1-800-268-6060. Although the title does not sound appropriate, it is correct to use it and the call will go into the Ministry of the Environment reporting office to be dealt with.

30 thoughts on “File Complaint”

IPC Energy has a proposed Wind Turbine location that did not take into consideration to our concerns. We (Skydive Burnaby) put a comment sheet in to IPC after their public infomation meeting.(Aug 2010) IPC called(Dec 6 2010) us and told us where the loctions are and we are not a certifed airport so we are with in the set back limitations for you. How ever we are a parachute center and they plan to put the two turbines up directly up wind of us, creating safety hazzards to our parachutists, and closer to our business.(est 1961) Not to mention the health affects and property value loss.

Welcome, Mike to the world of dealing with IPC/your local MoE/your local Health Unit.

The residents of the Clear Creek/Cultus/Frogmore IWT ZONE have been doing just that for ~ 2 years now, ever since 2008 when the 18 Vestas 1.65 MW IWT”s were erected all jammed in within a 3 km radius of the ~ 140 houses and the ~ 70 petitioners who signed the petition created by one of the residents saying they WERE affected by the IWT’s in one way or another.

While the instructions above are the idealized version of what we SHOULD be doing, many residents took other measures like selling their houses and moving far, far away, others abandoning their houses and renting other accomodations, some moving back with family or friends who have homes > 5 km away.

Because IPC/MoE/Health Unit wrapped themselves in a cloak of g-r-e-e-n, nothing came of all the diligent record keeping and some took the activity to be a form of insanity; i.e “doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”.

But the mills of the gods grind slowly but inexoribly and we are just grist for them.

I,m confused about how wind power is more harmful than electricity. After reading numerous articles on both sides of the fence, it seems that wind is cheaper and more efficient in the long run. How do you propose to make people conserve? I think that “educating” consumers is like spitting into the wind. Thank-you,

Hi Paul,
Wind isn’t cheaper. It’s far more expensive. It can only be viable with huge government subsidies. And it’s not more efficient. If the wind turning the turbines suddenly stops, the flow of electricity stops immediately. To keep the electrical supply constantly available across the grid, coal, gas and nuclear facilities need to be kept running as back-up, or houses, businesses and industries will have brown-outs, or power losses. So we’re still paying to have the back-ups running, and they’re much cheaper to run. Wind power is first into the grid at somewhere around 80 cents per Kw hour, but the conventional sources only cost under 10 cents per Kw hour. It may help for you to read from this web site. See http://www.aweo.org/Schleede.html Copy and paste into your browser window. It explains why the wind companies are so eager to get turbines up and running.

Obviously educating you is like spitting into the wind. Wind is definitely not cheaper, it is inefficient, it is not there when we need it. Buddy, you need better, more honest articles to read. Read Ozzie Zehner`s book, `The Green Illusion`, it will teach you the facts from an expert in the technical issues surrounding wind energy, and many other forms of renewable energy. Just the facts.

Neither of the 2 numbers work, same message, temporarily out of service. Maybe they want to be able to say there have been no complaints before the election, so they just turn off their phones. They aren’t much use anyway. But I need to establish a long-term record with them.

But the spills hotline is used for much more than just wind turbine complaints. Major chemical companies must call that number immediately if something serious happens. What a screwed up government we have.

Sir/madam …. I’m Dutch born, came to live in Canada in 1955 as a young boy …. The Dutch/Danes / French/ Greek etc…. Built working windmills back when and I’m positive no environmental impact studies were done … I realize I’m taking a free stab at a ludicrous somewhat comparrison !!!

My point is those windmills were working mills …. And worked …
Now we are installing big giant turbines … And only while the wind is blowing do they serve any purpose at all ONLY If the electricity produced is needed … Wind is a very fickle way of creating energy… If you create no way to store it!!! And hence that’s my beef;
What good are a ton of windmills if they cannot store the energy they create?? A total waste of monies…. And a blight on the country side …. Windmills are a hit and miss, build enough and you might get a lucky hit of wind at the right place and time … What a total waste of time invested !!!

Can someone with more knowledge on wind turbines and the effects on our environment, please address the gross inaccurate information on the Wikipedia site. This is where many people go for their facts, they need to be accurate.

If you are saying that you don’t have enough knowledge on wind turbines to address the issue, then how do you know that the information is inaccurate?
I have been installing wind turbines for the past 6 years and the information presented is 100% accurate. I am sorry that Ontario is doing wind energy wrong, but you shouldn’t be pointing the gun at the machine itself but rather the people who put the machines in the wrong places for the wrong reasons.

The fundamental reason why wind and solar electricity is not needed:
CO2 only absorbs on three characteristic infra-red wavelengths: 2349, 1333 and 667 cm-1. The 350 ppmv atmospheric CO2 level really means a blanket of 5.5 kg/m2. This is already all but 17 ppm opaque. Doubling will cut transmission to 0.3 ppm, but only on those 3 wavelengths.
The glass is already on the greenhouse! More is insignificant. (This is why computer models of climate are all failing). This is the real science.

STOP THE ONTARIO MIS-FIT PROGRAM! There is nothing green about wasting resources. The only thing that is available in unlimited supply (no limits what-so-ever) is stupidity.

Notice for all who are experiencing wind turbine related health and noise
problems in Canada

Until April 2012 the Canadian Federal Government / Health Canada position
concerning wind turbine health problems was: “At this time, there is
insufficient scientific evidence demonstrating a link between exposure to
wind turbine noise and harm to human health.”

As of August 2012 the Canadian Federal Government / Health Canada has now
stated:
“Health Canada will explore the relationship between wind turbine noise
levels and the extent of health effects reported be those living near wind
power developments.”

The Canadian Federal Government / Health Canada has changed its position
from denial of a problem to considering that there may be a problem.

It is very important that anyone who has a problem with wind turbine related
health and noise problems send a letter or email to the Federal Government
to let them know of your problems.

Your letter should be titled ‘This is a formal wind turbine health complaint’
then state the problems you have experienced with any evidence that you may
have to backup your claims.

You have to tell the government yourself. If you do not tell them they will
not know.The Federal Government has to hear from ever single person in
Canada that is having problems with wind turbines.

hey everyone, the government enjoys making the people suffer, watching people struggle, we are nothing more than mere entertainment for the government. These guys couldnt care about the tax paying slaves for one moment. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY…FOLLOW THE MONEY

my thoughts are if the government was so concerned about supplying more energy into the provicial grid in general, why can’t these turbines be build far up north, in the middle of no-where, with little civilization impacts, little evironmental impacts, and yet be just as effective. The wind blows everywhere across this province, and there are LOTS of flat barren areas of land in remote areas of northern ontario. Why are we contantly subjected to these turbine farms in the middle of our farmland….OH WAIT, that’s right, behind every idea there seems to be one greedy bastard that has to have it all to himself, in this case it seems like we missed the classroom meeting of the designers, engineers, goverment employees, and all the other idiots to put this energy act into place. Much like aggregates, the farmers are told their land will be worth gold, and all the money will get them out of debt, well thanks a lot you sheep wranglers. You might have pulled the wool over a few heads these past few years, but dammit the rest of us now aren’t going to stand for this nonsense. I’m tired of driving my motorcycle around this great province only to see these ugly ass turbines. Every other country isn’t milking the profit of this or that, put these things where they belong and not in our backyards….

Sirs
Looks like ”you all” have been working on this for a long time
Just recently with in the last 3 yrs, the Wind mill folks “Gilead” has been to our neighbour hood
of Adophustown ,or actually called the Greater Napanee area now
I seem to be the cheeky one at the 2 meetings
and when i ask them many questions which of course I can’t believe a word of their reply
As I have out foxed in once or twice (in a small way)
They are giving us $9000 per turbine
(As far as I’m concerened its only a 1/3 of what its worth )
DO YOU KNOW WHAT OTHER FOLKS RECEIVE?
They say ”that they sell electricity for 13 cents a (something, perhaps KW)
That seems odd when I pay 9 or 10 cents for it
I asked them if they get 50 to 80 cents from the government ?
As the solor people do
They say ”no”
HOW DOES A PERSON KNOW FOR SURE WHAT THEY RECEIVE
I complained about the deprection of the land value
Of course they say “”According to studies, the land value is not depreciating”
SO HOW DOES A PERSON FIND OUT “TRULY” WHAT THE LAND VALUE DEPRECTION IS”
Can you narrow this down for me?
Thanks
Paul Garrison

Paul,
1. I believe many companies are offering $40,000 – $50,000/year per turbine in the Niagara area. This is what is being reported but of course the documents are confidential and not available to the public.
2. Wind generally gets 11-13 cents. You will eventually being paying more on your bill to cover this. Solar gets 50 to 80 depending if it is large scale, roof mounted, etc. Ditto, you will pay. You already are through the Delivery charge on your bill. You can find these rates on the Ontario FIT program website.
3. You won’t know how much your property has depreciated until actually you sell it. Please read the “Devaluation” tab on this website (at the top) to see what is happening elsewhere.

Turbine farmers in West Lincoln are being paid $50,000.00 per year, per turbine installed on their property. It is not cheap to pay someone to harm their neighbours, and become a pariah in the community. But then again, that`s only enough to cover the cost of 10 plates of food at Kathleen Wynne`s bribery dinner, hosted by the windpushers. It`s all relative, I guess!

apply carbon foot print model to the turbines they become 8 x dirtier than tar sands…..this method also shows we getting hosed and lied too 90% of the time .. I sat under one in Selkirk 2 days ago no security at all exposed parts .and loud ……..ruins whole reason for moving out of suburds looks like…… hunting season open …… shut down a turbine…… return our quality of life….is my number 1 priority mr and ms wind with your matching 90 thousand dollar suvs meet them at vote please go home leave us alone and by the way take your crappy turbine with u we in Ontario sending message to investors come come come but produce good jobs with good product …..

During the winter months when the wind is blowing out of the north, the noise from the turbines is horrendous.
When I sent a letter of complaint, I was told that it was impossible as we’re too far away (we’re about 1.5 km). Our thought is that the tree cover the rest of the year provides a buffer from the noise.

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